China reacts angrily to Japanese plan to buy disputed islands

China warned on Wednesday that it would take all “necessary measures” to thwart a Japanese plan to buy a disputed chain of islands.

An increasingly shrill battle for the islands, named the Diaoyu’s by China and the Senkaku’s by Japan, has blown up this year, with nationalists on both sides trying to plant territorial flags and stir up public anger.

The stakes were escalated by Shintaro Ishihara, the rabble-rousing governor of Tokyo, who suggested that the Japanese government buy three of the islands from the Kurihura family, who claim the Japanese deeds. Japan should stand up to China, he intoned, or face becoming a “second Tibet”.

As Japanese newspapers reported the purchase plan was close to fruition, with a Y2.05 billion (£16.4 million) price agreed on Wednesday, the Chinese government voiced its rage.